The Flesh

The Flesh
A Body of the Flesh
General Information
Species	Flesh
Age	unknown
Home World	unknown
Dimension	unknown multitude
Abilities and Equipment
Abilities	Regeneration Duplication Hive Intelligence Universe Jumping (see below) Assimilation Enhanced Strength Enhanced Durability Enhanced Reflexes
Relationships
Details
First Appearance	Life and Flesh

The Flesh is an amalgamous hive-species threatening the Edge of the Omniverse. It functions both as a species and a mind of its own. It forms the primary antagonist of Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood.

The Flesh most often materialises in one of three forms;

• Avatars of the Flesh
• Bodies of the Flesh
• Flesh Monstrosities

But will sometimes take on other forms, such as;

• Puppets of the Flesh

Appearance

The Flesh can take any number of forms that the material of its being can produce. Each form is purely functional, without concern for aesthetic.

Every Flesh entity is a mess of bloody muscles, veins, and bone. More often then not, their exposed muscles glisten slightly.

Personality

The majority of Flesh entities are animalistic, able of performing only basic strategies to try and best their opposition. In large enough numbers, any semblance of strategy is abandoned for sheer force.

The vanguard of the Flesh, and the greatest source of 'personality' for the multitude, are the Avatars. These entities retain the minds they held when they were separate to the Flesh, and can be summoned by other Flesh entities when a greater mind is required.

Powers and Abilities

The true extent of the Flesh's abilities are unclear do to the sheer spread of its being. Though some common powers include:

Regeneration. The Flesh are able to rebuild and reconstitute themselves from damage done, reconnecting broken nerves, bones, and veins. If the damage taken is too great to recover this way, they can absorb matter outside their being- like other people, animals, or Flesh entities- in order to facilitate regeneration.

Shapeshifting. The Flesh can modify their form in order to accomplish a given task. This can include creating new Bodies or Monstrosities if their mass is significant enough. Some Flesh tend towards creating sharp weapons out of bone.

Any Avatar of the Flesh has access to the greater mind network of the Flesh. This ability is not passive and Avatars are expected to be able to act independently.

The Flesh can assimilate any fleshy creature into its numbers. However only willing Anchors can expect for their consciousness to survive the process. Contact with the Flesh is not immediately dangerous, but prolonged contact can be.

The Flesh are fully aware of mortal emotions are will readily take advantage of them to manipulate their targets, including by use of mimicry and making Avatars of specifically important people to their targets.

Unique Abilities

In Life and Flesh a Monstrosity demonstrated the tactic of trapping Heatblast inside one of its own internal chambers, then flooding that chamber with a fluid that it hoped would snuff him out.

Weaknesses

The Flesh, when its agents are being fought in small enough numbers, can have their regenerative powers overwhelmed.

Avatars in particular are vulnerable to having their senses overwhelmed, buying their opposition a vital window of opportunity. One way this can be achieved is with medical alcohol, which the human Ben used to blind and immobilise Ester long enough to escape during their fight in Children of the Flesh.

Individuals

• Ben 10 Multiverse
  • Ester (Earth-CDXI.411)
• Doctor Who Universe
  • Officer Harold Conway
  • Reconstituted Daleks
• Marvel Multiverse
  • Tony Stark (Earth-199898)
• Red Dwarf Universe
  • Cat Priest
  • Kristine Kochanski (alternate timeline)

History

The origin of the Flesh is unknown, lost to whichever now assimilated and converted universe it first came from.

Kev 11

Kev 'Leven first discovered the Flesh in his universe years ago, and searched across the Edge of the Omniverse alongside Professor Paradox for a method of removing the Flesh from their foothold there. However he was unsuccessful.

Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood

In Life and Flesh, the Flesh destroyed Earth-CDXI.411 and Kev 'Leven along with it. However Ben Tennyson managed to escape from them, the first person to ever do so. As they attempted to destroy another universe, the scientists there also managed to escape as Ben returned to protect them. The Flesh that attempted to fight Ben was annihilated when the scientists' portal was repurposed.

The Flesh materialised in the Doctor Who Universe in The Genocide Gene, where it attempted to convince both the humans and the Daleks to join it. Officer Conway and the Daleks became Puppets of the Flesh. The Flesh was destroyed in this universe when the Salvation's self-destruct sequence was activated.

In Children of the Flesh, the Flesh had infested the bowels of the mining ship Red Dwarf, having assimilated the Felis Sapiens that resided there with the intention of overwhelming the Anchors that lived aboard the ship. They were discovered and fought by Ben Tennyson and, although they nearly stood to succeed, they were tricked out of the ship and destroyed by the Red Dwarf's mining arrays. They revealed they had taken over an alternate timeline in an attempt to manipulate Dave Lister of the main timeline, but this gambit failed.

Visions of the Flesh tortured Ben throughout his nightmare in Ghost in the Dream. Ester and Tony Stark both joined this torment. Ben's nightmare ended when he was overwhelmed by Flesh in the same manner as Kev 'Leven was in Life and Flesh.

At the end of The Other Ben and through the beginning of Prodigy, Ben quickly left the Earth-10,000,000.3 universe and accidentally arrived in a dead universe overwhelmed by the Flesh. Consumed and abandoned by the higher Fleshmind, it was dominated by huge mats of meat and scabs that bathed in the sunlight. They consumed everything; the organic material having been processed during the initial invasion, these lesser Fleshforms existed to process the remaining matter.

Appearances

Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood

• Life and Flesh (debut)
• The Genocide Gene
• Children of the Flesh
• The Other Ben (cameo)
• Prodigy

Other

• Ghost in the Dream (via nightmare)

Trivia

• The Flesh is inspired by the Mind Flayer from Season 3 of Stranger Things as well as the theoretical concept of 'grey goo' albeit reapplied to organic matter rather than machines.
• The Flesh share similarities with the Tyranids from Warhammer 40k, both being ravenous swarms seeking to consume all matter they come across. Where the Tyranids are restricted to galaxies, the Flesh spread across universes.
• The Flesh was originally going to be mechanical in nature, but was made organic because the original concept risked getting stale too quickly.